-------------------------------------------------------------------

The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (New Zealand Health Committee
Advocates Relaxing Marijuana Laws, Finds Moderate Use Harmless;
Marijuana May Offer Protection Against Tumors, Research Shows;
Maine Will Decide Medical Marijuana Question In '99;
New California A.G. Says Legalizing Medical Marijuana Will Be A Priority)

From: NORMLFNDTN@aol.com
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 12:06:11 EST
Subject: NORML WPR 12/31/98 (II)

The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release

1001 Connecticut Ave., NW
Ste. 710
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-8751 (p)
202-483-0057 (f)
www.norml.org
foundation@norml.org

December 31, 1998

***

New Zealand Health Committee Advocates Relaxing Marijuana Laws, Finds
Moderate Use Harmless

December 31, Wellington, New Zealand: A Parliamentary health
committee recommends that government officials review the appropriateness
of existing marijuana policies after it determined that moderate use of
the drug posed few health hazards.

"Based on the evidence we have heard in the course of this inquiry,
the negative mental health impacts of cannabis appears to have been
overstated, particularly in relation to occasional adult users of the
drug," a committee spokesman said. "The weight of available evidence
suggests that long-term heavy use of cannabis does not produce severe or
gross impairment of cognitive function. ... Moderate use of the drug
does not seem to harm the majority of people [who try it.]"

The ten-member health select committee examined evidence regarding
marijuana's potential health effects for eight months before issuing its
conclusions. In July, officials from the New Zealand Health Ministry
testified before the committee that moderate marijuana use posed less of
a public health risk than alcohol or tobacco.

Committee chairman Brian Neeson said he hoped parliament would
reconsider the legal status of marijuana when it convenes in February.
He voiced concern that the drug's illegality may dissuade some people
from seeking treatment for marijuana-related problems.

Chris Fowlie, a spokesman for NORML New Zealand praised the
committee's findings. "The Inquiry heard that many of the harms often
associated with cannabis are actually created by its prohibition, while
the actual harms presented by cannabis have been exaggerated," he said.
"NORML [New Zealand] welcomes [these] recommendations to review the
[federal] law and demands an immediate moratorium on arresting cannabis
users."

The New Zealand government has three months to respond in writing to
the health committee's recommendations. The inquiry is the first since
1973 to review federal marijuana policy.

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul
Armentano of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751. Additional
information is also available online from NORML New Zealand at:
http://www.norml.org.nz or from the New Zealand Drug Forum at:
http://www.nzdf.org.nz.

***

Marijuana May Offer Protection Against Tumors, Research Shows

December 31, 1998, Madrid, Spain: Cell studies performed by
researchers at Madrid's Universidad Complutense demonstrate that THC, one
of the active compounds in marijuana, can induce cell death in certain
brain tumor cells without effecting the surrounding healthy cells.

Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen of the German-based Association for Cannabis
as Medicine (ACM) proposed that marijuana's constituents may one day play
a role in cancer treatment. "It is desirable to have a substance that
induces programmed cell death in tumor cells but not in health cells for
the treatment of cancer," he wrote in the December 13 issue of the
ACM-Bulletin. "It has been demonstrated by the Spanish scientists ...
that THC could be such a substance."

The Spanish research team said that their findings "might provide the
basis for a new therapeutic application of cannabinoids."

At least one previous American animal study documents that THC may
potentially protect against malignancies. The study, which went
unpublicized by federal officials for more than 2 1/2 years, found that
rats given high doses of THC suffered from fewer cancers than those not
treated with the agent. The $2 million federal study became known only
after copies of the draft report were leaked to the publication AIDS
Treatment News in January of 1997. The Boston Globe broke the story
nationwide days later.

Details of the Spanish cell research are available in the latest
editions of the scientific journals FEBS Letters and Molecular
Pharmacology.

For more information, please contact The NORML Foundation @ (202)
483-8751. For additional information, please contact the ACM online at:
http://www.hanfnet.de/acm or by e-mail at: ACMed@t-online.de.

***	

Maine Will Decide Medical Marijuana Question In '99

December 31, 1998, Augusta, ME: Voters will likely decide this
November whether to allow the medical use of marijuana under a doctor's
supervision.

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky said proponents turned in sufficient
signatures to place the measure on the 1999 state ballot. The proposal
seeks to allow seriously ill patients to possess and cultivate marijuana
for medical purposes if they have a recommendation from their physician.

Maine law mandates that all ballot questions must first go before the
Legislature. Unless lawmakers approve the initiative exactly as
proposed, voters have the opportunity to accept or reject it in November.

The proposal asks, "Do you want to allow patients with specific
illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as
long as such use is approved by a doctor?"

Maine's medical marijuana is modeled after an unsuccessful 1997
Senate bill that sought to exempt patients from criminal penalties if
their use of marijuana was approved by a physician.

For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup, Esq. or
Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500. Additional information is also
available from Americans for Medical Rights @ (310) 394-2952.

***

New California A.G. Says Legalizing Medical Marijuana Will Be A Priority

December 31, 1998, Sacramento, CA: Properly implementing
California's two-year old medical marijuana law is one of the top ten
priorities for Attorney General-elect Bill Lockyer, The San Francisco
Examiner reported this week.

Lockyer said he supports the law and criticized outgoing Attorney
General Dan Lungren for opposing its adoption. "I think [Lungren] was
overly zealous in continuing to oppose [Prop. 215] even after the [voters
approved it,]" he said. "I joke that there are days when I thought Dan
had a copy of 'Reefer Madness' at home."

Lockyer appointed a task force to examine ways to better implement
Proposition 215, and said he backs a regulated system for distributing
the drug.

California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer called Lockyer's victory
critical toward helping officials better define the state's medical
marijuana policies. Americans for Medical Rights spokesman Dave Fratello
agreed. "The change from Lungren is potentially very significant," he
said. "Lockyer has said he understands the conflict we have with federal
law and would like to see this initiative work."

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre of The
NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751 or Dale Gieringer of California NORML @
(415) 563-5858.

				- END -

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Lockyer Submits Budget Proposal (According to an Associated Press article
in the San Jose Mercury News, California Attorney General-elect Bill Lockyer
says he wants to make Proposition 215 work. "That means cooperating
with local communities if they have different approaches. So San Francisco
would be different than Kern County," he said.)

Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 00:06:43 +0000
To: vignes@monaco.mc
From: Peter Webster (vignes@monaco.mc)
Subject: Lockyer Submits Budget Proposal
Pubdate: 31 Dec 1998
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1998 Mercury Center

LOCKYER SUBMITS BUDGET PROPOSAL

Attorney general-elect puts emphasis on civil rights, consumers, environment

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Democratic Attorney General-elect Bill Lockyer has
submitted a 1999-2000 budget proposal that calls for a 5 percent spending
increase for his civil rights, consumer and environmental units.

While his Republican predecessor, Dan Lungren, focused almost exclusively
on crime and punishment, Lockyer's campaign promises include beefing up
civil rights, environmental and consumer protections and passing an
enforceable ban on assault weapons.

Lockyer also wants to reform the death penalty appeals process, curb school
violence and regulate the state's gambling industry.

Focus on Proposition 215

The new attorney general told reporters in published reports that he wants
to focus on legalizing the use of medicinal marijuana in the wake of
Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that was intended to allow seriously
ill patients to grow and use marijuana for pain relief with a doctor's
recommendation.

The initiative has largely failed because of efforts made through the
courts by Lungren and the federal government. But Lockyer says he wants to
make Proposition 215 work.

``That means cooperating with local communities if they have different
approaches. So San Francisco would be different than Kern County,'' Lockyer
said.

Lockyer hasn't announced his picks for many top-level positions, from the
criminal law division to civil rights and, perhaps, a new position in
charge of environmental enforcement.

Lockyer has asked Democratic Gov.-elect Gray Davis for $25 million in extra
funding over the current year's budget to hire more attorneys in some
departments and to strengthen the state's crime labs.

After campaigning on a promise to broaden the mission of the Attorney
General's Office beyond Lungren's primary focus on criminal enforcement,
Lockyer has moved quickly since his Nov. 3 election to convene task forces
and begin to develop policy initiatives.

During a recent meeting with veteran consumer activists, Lockyer listened
to ideas on how to beef up consumer protection.

He also held similar brainstorming sessions with environmental and civil
rights activists who, like the consumer groups, were often at loggerheads
with Lungren's pro-business philosophy.

Lockyer said he was astonished to find the division of civil rights
enforcement somewhere below the Registry of Charitable Trusts on an
internal organizational chart.

Range of issues

Eva Paterson, executive director of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil
Rights, said she was impressed with the broad range of advocates Lockyer
assembled to discuss issues such as affirmative action, voting rights,
rights of immigrants and refugees, women's rights and rights of the disabled.

``He said something that just warmed my heart that you don't expect to hear
from a government official. He said, `I'm here to make the world a safer
place.' Who do you hear that from these days?''

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'Mob' Attack On Cops Yields Riot Charges (The Arizona Daily Star
says four police officers found themselves surrounded by an "angry mob"
Tuesday afternoon when interrogating a man they suspected of smoking
marijuana near a southside park.)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 16:57:29 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AZ: `Mob' Attack On Cops Yields Riot Charges
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/
Pubdate: Thursday, 31 December 1998

`MOB' ATTACK ON COPS YIELDS RIOT CHARGES

Four bicycle officers found themselves surrounded by an ``angry mob''
Tuesday afternoon after checking on a man suspected of smoking
marijuana near a southside park, police said.

The officers were doing a routine check of Mirasol Park, near South
Kino Parkway and East Silverlake Road, just after 2 p.m. when they
spotted Victor Clark, who they believed was smoking pot, said Tucson
police Sgt. Brett Klein.

``They were talking to the individual when someone came out of a
nearby house and began to physically interfere with the arrest,'' Klein said.

Between 10 and 12 people came from the house, in the 1000 block of
East 28th Street, and the nearby park and began to assault the
officers, Klein said.

``They were punching at them and spitting,'' Klein said.

Responding to the officers' call for backup, about 15 more officers
arrived to get the crowd under control, Klein said.

Clark was not arrested on drug charges, but he was one of four people
who were arrested on various other charges, ranging from inciting a
riot to aggravated assault on a police officer. Both are felonies.

Arrested were: Clark, 19, on suspicion of inciting a riot and
hindering prosecution; Stephanie Clark, 17, on suspicion of aggravated
assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, hindering prosecution
and criminal damage; Janeece Oneal, 16, on suspicion of resisting
arrest and hindering prosecution; and Anthony Clark, 16, on suspicion
of aggravated assault on a police officer and inciting a riot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug-Testing Policy Would Be Far-ranging (The Tulsa World
says education officials are pushing for Drumright to be the first school
in the Tulsa area with a random drug-testing policy for students involved
in all extracurricular activities. If the proposal is approved at a February
school board meeting, it would affect more than 80 percent of students
in grades 6 through 12, including those in organizations such as
the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Science Club. Northeastern
Oklahoma schools in Commerce, Colcord and Kansas already test
student athletes. "To me, that's not sending out the right message,"
said Drumright Superintendent Roxie Terry. "I want this to say we care
about everybody. We don't want to leave anyone out.")

Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 13:27:34 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OK: Drug-Testing Policy Would Be Far-ranging
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Michael Pearson (oknorml@swbell.net)
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Pubdate: Thu, 31 Dec 1998
Contact: tulsaworld@mail.webtek.com
Website: http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Copyright: 1998, World Publishing Co.
Author: Micheal Smith, World Staff Writer

DRUG-TESTING POLICY WOULD BE FAR-RANGING

Drumright Wants To Test All Students Who Take Part In Any Extracurricular
Activities.

DRUMRIGHT -- School officials are pushing for Drumright to be the first
school in the Tulsa area with a random drug-testing policy for students
involved in all extracurricular activities.

If the proposal is approved at a February school board meeting, it would
affect more than 80 percent of the students in sixth through 12th grades,
including those in organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes and the Science Club, Drumright Superintendent Roxie Terry said.

Northeastern Oklahoma schools in Commerce, Colcord and Kansas already have
adopted such a policy. It expands upon measures instituted in recent years
with regard to testing student athletes.

``To me, that's not sending out the right message,'' Terry said. ``I want
this to say we care about everybody. We don't want to leave anyone out.''

He said the program would send students a message that they will get caught
if they do drugs. It will also give students a good opportunity to ``say
no'' to drugs when peer pressure might persuade them otherwise, he said.

Other area schools want to institute similar drug tests for extracurricular
activities and are watching Drumright's progress, he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court this year allowed an Indiana high school to continue
having students take drug tests in order to take part in extracurricular
activities. The decision, however, did not set a national precedent.

At a school board meeting on Monday, Terry will ask board members for final
input on the proposal and to schedule a town meeting on the subject.

It would be the third town meeting to address the drug-testing policy in
the past three months, during which time Terry has drummed up support.

``The response has been excellent. There's a great deal of support from
parents and students,'' he said. ``We really don't have much of a drug
problem here, but I believe in this program, and so do others.''

If approved at a February school board meeting, testing would begin almost
immediately, Terry said.

Random drug-screening tests would be administered to a small percentage of
students at periods of as long as 14 days between the tests. All of the
students involved in extracurricular activities would be tested at some
point during the school year, Terry said.

He said the policy would affect 82 percent of the 387 students in sixth
through 12th grades. Students participating in Future Farmers of America,
Future Homemakers of America, Student Council and the yearbook would be
among those to be tested.

Terry said he expects a volunteer spirit to bring the testing number closer
to 100 percent. He said several students who are not involved in
extracurricular activities have expressed a desire to participate in the
drug testing, as have teachers and athletics coaches.

``I can tell you that I'll be first in line,'' said Terry, who added that
he's witnessed little opposition to the proposal.

Ed Turlington, principal of Colcord High School in Delaware (( End of
Column 1 )) County, said he's received no complaints from parents or
students since testing began there in August. Even more remarkably, he's
seen no negative test results yet, with more than half of the students
having been tested.

``It's unbelievable. I mean, you know that somebody in any small town is
smoking pot or something,'' he said. ``But then, these kids know they're
going to be tested.''

Joann Bell, state executive director for the American Civil Liberties
Union, calls the testing a ``terrible invasion of privacy.'' Expanding
testing to include academic achievers is hard to figure and largely a waste
of money, she said.

``Everybody has rights in this country -- young people, too,'' she said.
``They're seemingly picking on the good kids here. It's atrocious and a
slap in the face to the 4th Amendment.''

Bell said she welcomes any complaints about the drug-testing proposal,
though she realizes that some people are hesitant to come forward because
``they might think it makes them look like they're involved in drugs in
some way.''

``This whole thing will be very invasive, and school officials will learn
things through this testing that should be private,'' Bell said.

Terry said an initial drug screening would cost an estimated $17 per
student at Drumright. Follow-up tests for the 387 students would increase
the thousands of dollars the testing would cost the school district, but
the expense is worth it ``if we can save even one child,'' Terry said.

A student's first positive test would result in a nine-week suspension from
extracurricular activities, he said. A second offense would bring an
18-week suspension from activities and required counseling for the student.
A one-year suspension would follow a third offense.

Confidential information from the testing, which would be known only to
Terry or his representative at the school, would not be forwarded to local
law enforcement authorities, he said.

``They've expressed an interest in that information, but we think we really
might be treading'' on student's rights, he said. ``Could there be some
problem like that we're aiding and abetting by not turning that information
over? I'll let a court decide that.''

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High On Hemp (A fashion article in the Boston Globe says the Hempest,
a boutique on Newbury Street in Boston, has thrived for the last three years
selling clothing, accessories, and beauty products made of hemp.
What's the store's cachet? Like a lot of things in fashion, it has a nuance
of naughtiness. Some frequent the shop as a political statement. Others
appreciate that hemp doesn't have pesticides in it. And a few favor hemp
because - it's fashionable.)

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 22:23:32 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MA: High On Hemp
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: The Media Awareness Project
Pubdate: Thu, 31 Dec 1998
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Section: Fashion, page C01
Contact: letters@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Copyright: 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
Author: Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff

HIGH ON HEMP

Strong, Versatile, And Pesticide-free, This All-Natural Fiber Has Its Fans

Here's a risky business plan: Open a retail store based on a plant theme in
the most exclusive shopping district in Boston. Think you can survive?

Newbury Street's The Hempest has. For three years, the boutique has thrived
selling clothing, accessories, and beauty products made of hemp (that
environmentally friendly plant that is a cousin of marijuana).

What's the store's cachet? Like a lot of things in fashion, it has a nuance
of naughtiness. ''Every single day, people come in to ask if they can smoke
the clothing,'' says co-owner Mitch Rosenfield. (The answer is no.)
''People ask me if we sell marijuana. It's the biggest joke when it
happens. I usually ask them if they have any.''

Shake your head if you want. But sometimes double takes and over-the-top
ideas are what it takes to survive in the fashion world. Consider
Abercrombie & Fitch's sexy (and very successful) ad campaign. Or the
imaginary characters in Calvin Klein's cK one commercials, whom consumers
are encouraged to e-mail.

The Hempest is Boston's example of pushing the envelope. It stands out
because - amid world-class salons like Chanel and Giorgio Armani - it
thumbs its nose, boldly selling hemp rolling papers, hemp greeting cards
(with giant green leaves on the cover), and some popular hemp lollipops
that are flavored (supposedly) to taste like pot.

The store also sells women's and men's clothing, including hemp skirts,
dresses, pants, and shoes, along with accessories like hemp backpacks, coin
purses, and hats. There are also hemp skin creams and shampoos, lip balms
and, believe it or not, baking flour.

The offbeat concept is appealing to consumers for a number of reasons. Some
frequent the shop as a political statement. ''I don't think they should
arrest [marijuana] drug users. A lot of legal drugs are more lethal,'' says
Peter Wetherbee, a regular shopper. ''I do believe in voting with my
dollars,'' he says.

Other folks appreciate the fact that hemp material doesn't have pesticides
in it. ''I went through this massive spiritual revolution when I dropped
out of school,'' says Kelly Reed of Boston, who owns three hemp sweaters,
several skirts and dresses, pants, shoes, hats, socks, coin purses, and
jewelry. ''I became a vegetarian. I had to have veggie shoes. I had to have
hemp. Hemp supports us. We should support it. So many pesticides are used
with cotton,'' she says.

Some people favor hemp because it's fashionable. ''My friends told me about
it,'' says Colin Allen of Wellesley, who owns hemp pants and enjoys hemp
lollipops. ''It's great.''

Hemp has been used widely in fashion for a few years now. Giorgio Armani
had it in his Emporio Armani collections over the last several years. The
Body Shop introduced a line of hemp skin-care products in May. And actor
Woody Harrelson has promoted hemp extensively, wearing hemp Armani tuxedos
to the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards last year.

What is hemp exactly? It's an herb grown for the strong fiber in its stem.
Some sailcloth and rope are made out of it, and it has a long seafaring
history. (Warehouses at the old Charlestown Navy Yard routinely made hemp
into rope in the 1800s.) And, as a large part of its modern cachet,
marijuana comes from the leaves and flowers of a particular strain of hemp.

Supporters like hemp because it's a versatile and hearty plant. Almost
every part of the plant can be used (to make paper, fiber, fuel, medicine,
plastic, and particleboard, among other things), and there's that matter of
not requiring pesticides to survive, says Rosenfield.

Surprisingly, hemp can be made to look like fine linen, not the rough
burlap you might expect. Though it can be imported readily enough for
industrial use, it's illegal to grow hemp in the United States.

To be sure, industrial hemp does not have the psychoactive elements of its
relative, marijuana. ''You can smoke a field of this stuff and you're not
going to get high,'' says Rosenfield.

But that hasn't stopped some anti-marijuana activists from protesting.
Adidas America received numerous complaints after introducing a hemp
sneaker. ''There were so many critics writing to say `How dare you make a
shoe out of marijuana,''' says John Fread, a company spokesman. ''We had to
explain to people that the Navy has been using commercial hemp for years
because it's so strong.''

Fread said that Adidas discontinued the shoe last year, but not because of
the complaints. ''Sales just dwindled,'' he says.

Rosenfield, who founded his store in 1995 with friends Jon Napoli and Leah
Johnson, says they've had no protests. Instead, he says, ''People always
come in here and want to tell me the story of how they got busted one
time.''

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Crime Down, Reasons Up (A staff editorial in the Chicago Tribune
says the decline in murder and other crime is undeniably good news.
It would be even better news if the nation managed to cut through the pet
theories and self-serving explanations and actually learned something from
its success. The theory that the crack market has settled into a less-lethal,
business-as-usual mode does not satisfy law-and-order professionals, nor does
it explain why all kinds of crime, violent and non-violent, from rape to car
theft, are trending down.)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 19:45:13 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: Editorial: Crime Down, Reasons Up
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Copyright: 1998 Chicago Tribune Company
Pubdate: 31 Dec 1998
Section: Sec. 1

CRIME DOWN, REASONS UP

Trial-and-error is the more powerful method of human advancement because
trial-and-success, though more satisfying, is more subject to
interpretation. When it fails to rain after a ceremonial dance, the lesson
is relatively clear.

A post-dance cloudburst can be misleading.

So it is with another year's worth of favorable crime statistics. The FBI's
final totals for 1997 show that national rates for homicide and other
serious crimes have declined, again, for a sixth consecutive year. Similar
findings are reflected in the Justice Department's annual household survey.
The best news: The murder rate last year was the lowest in 30 years--just
6.8 homicides per 100,000 population, or 7 percent below 1996 levels.
Chicago's rate also was down for the third year in a row (though New York's
is falling so fast that, this year, Chicago may end up with more homicides
than Gotham.)

Some experts say this reflects an inevitable recovery from the years of
1992-93 and before, when gangs battled for supremacy in the then-novel
crack cocaine trade.

Now the crack market has settled into a less-lethal, business-as-usual
mode. But this theory does not satisfy law-and-order professionals, nor
does it explain why all kinds of crime, violent and non-violent, from rape
to car theft, are trending down.

Demographers explain that Baby Boomers have moved past the crime-prone
years and there aren't enough Baby Busters to cause that much mayhem.

This reasoning, in turn, galls those who've been trying new anti-crime
methods and want some of the credit.

One such is Chicago's Community Policing, or CAPS program, which tries to
prevent crimes before they happen.

In New York, former police commissioner William Bratton credited his own
leadership in a recent autobiographical book. In Chicago, Mayor Richard
Daley can be expected to do something similar on the campaign stump.

Then there's the lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key explanation. Last year
the number of Americans in jail rose to 1.7 million, a one-year increase of
5.2 percent.

Get-tough advocates say this is no coincidence--that the price of safer
streets is our willingness to jail record numbers of felons.

Which is fine, as far as it goes, though evidence also mounts that jails
are filling with substance-addicted repeat offenders whose non-violent
crimes might be more efficiently prevented by drug treatment.

It is undeniably good news, this continuing decline in the crime rate. It
will be even better news if the nation manages to cut through the pet
theories and self-serving explanations and actually learn something from
our success.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A Holiday Gathering Behind Jail's Walls (The Baltimore Sun
covers a Christmas party for 150 inmates at the Women's Detention Center
in downtown Baltimore. Darlene Green, who is awaiting trial on a drug
conspiracy charge, won't let her two sons and two daughters visit during
the rest of the year because they are barred from making contact, separated
by a metal screen. But on this day, "I can touch my children," Green said.
LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of the city detention center, said "Children
miss their mothers, which further contributes to juvenile delinquency.")

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 19:45:14 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MD: A Holiday Gathering Behind Jail's Walls
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Rob Ryan
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Contact: letters@baltsun.com
Website: http://www.sunspot.net/
Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
Copyright: 1998 by The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Pubdate: 31 Dec 1998
Author: Peter Hermann

A HOLIDAY GATHERING BEHIND JAIL'S WALLS

As inmates meet with their children, the question is: `When will you be home?'

Darlene Green's four children gathered around and traded stories about
Christmas, schoolwork and friends yesterday. But most of all, Green said,
"They want to know when I'm going to come home."

It is not an easy question to answer at a Christmas party for inmates at
the Women's Detention Center in downtown Baltimore. Doing time is something
they want to forget.

"My children understand that I can't go home until somebody lets me," said
Green, 38.

For 150 women awaiting trial or sentencing, yesterday's party in the jail's
gym -- with gifts, Santa Claus and food -- gave mothers a rare chance to
talk, hug and cry with their children.

Green, who is awaiting trial on a drug conspiracy charge, won't let her two
sons and two daughters visit during the rest of the year because they are
barred from making contact, separated by a metal screen. But on this day,
"I can touch my children," Green said.

The annual event began five years ago when Gwendolyn Oliver, director of
inmate activities, saw a need for the children to come together for the
holidays. Most of the female inmates are raising their sons and daughters
alone. The children stay with relatives or foster parents while their
mothers are in jail.

"It is very important that children be able to bond and maintain a
relationship with their parents," said LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of
the city detention center, adding that the program helps inside and outside
jail walls.

"Children miss their mothers, which further contributes to juvenile
delinquency," Flanagan said. "It is extremely important that the children
be able to relate to their parents during the most important holiday in our
society."

Workers transformed the drab gym into a Christmas party room, with
tablecloths decorated with candy canes and bows, a lighted tree, red
poinsettias and a pile of gifts. Parents and children sat around long
tables and took pictures with Santa. Children were given gifts -- all
donated by local businesses. The food was different -- hot dogs and
hamburgers and spicy beans instead of the usual prison fare of bologna
sandwiches.

Joann Coleman, 38, has been behind bars for most of her 4-year-old son's
life. She had just completed a three-year stint in prison in Jessup on a
drug conviction when her house was raided by police for drugs last month,
and she was arrested again.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now I'm right back here,"
Coleman said, while holding her son Jerry McNutt. Her trial is scheduled
for Feb. 10. "He asks why I'm here, and I tell them that I did something
bad and this is my punishment."

The day is especially important for the children. "I love my mother," said
Dominique Williams, 14. "As soon as I walked in here, she shouted, `Let me
hug my babies.' "

Lisa Williams, 31, is spending 30 days in jail for violating probation on a
drug conviction. She failed to show up for a drug test. "I really messed up
this time," she said, "but this day is a blessing."

For many of the children, the gifts of toy cars, stuffed animals and games
were the only presents they got for Christmas.

The incarcerated mothers wanted family time.

"This is like a Christmas present for me," said Eartha Evans, 43, who was
with her two sons, Marty Johnson, 6, and Bernard Williams, 11.

She was arrested on a drug conspiracy charge in October -- she said she was
just standing at a corner -- and her trial is scheduled April 14. She said
she wants to get into a heroin clinic to kick her addiction.

"My children don't understand," Evans said. "I tell them that Mommy did
something wrong, and this is the price she has to pay. They keep asking me
when I'm going to come home. I can't answer that."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug-Study Subjects Given Hallucinogen Without Warning
(According to an Associated Press article in the Seattle Times,
the Boston Globe said today that researchers with the National Institute
of Mental Health at Bethesda, Maryland, who were trying to find ways
to treat schizophrenia gave more than 100 healthy people ketamine,
or "Special K" - supposedly a powerful hallucinogen and "date-rape" drug -
without fully informing them that the drug could potentially produce
psychotic episodes.)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 16:57:32 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MA: Drug-Study Subjects Given Hallucinogen Without Warning
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Thursday, 31 December 1998
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Seattle Times Company
Author: The Associated Press

DRUG-STUDY SUBJECTS GIVEN HALLUCINOGEN WITHOUT WARNING

BOSTON - Researchers trying to find ways to treat schizophrenia gave
more than 100 healthy people a powerful hallucinogen without fully
informing them that the drug could potentially produce psychotic
episodes, The Boston Globe reported today.

The studies involved the drug ketamine, also known as "Special K" and
considered a "date-rape" drug because of the stupor like condition it
can cause.

The Globe said the studies, which began in 1994, involved mentally ill
and healthy people, and participants often were not told they were
being given ketamine specifically to induce conditions similar to
schizophrenia.

Ketamine is available by prescription only, and was approved by the
Food and Drug Administration as an anesthetic. Its primary use is as
an animal tranquilizer.

Healthy people given the drug reported feelings of floating, having a
radio in the ear, tearfulness and sad moods and feelings of "life and
death at the same time," The Globe said.

The possibility of long-term harm from drug-induced psychosis is less
likely in healthy people, but there is a possibility of flashbacks
months later, the report says.

Disclosure is important because there is the possibility of "hooking
someone" on the drug, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the
University of Pennsylvania.

Experiments were done primarily at the National Institute of Mental
Health at Bethesda, Md., or facilities financed by the institute, such
as medical schools at Yale University and New York University.

The NIMH's institutional review board approved the studies.

"This is a medicine which is given under close scrutiny for a
short-term basis. There is no repeat long-term exposure," said Dr.
Trey Sunderland, chairman of the review board.

Sunderland said consent forms mention that "you might get an altered
mood, hallucinations . . . The main side effects of the medication are
listed in black and white."

***

To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: Robert Goodman (robgood@bestweb.net)
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1999 21:54:23 -500
Subject: Re: Healthy People Given "Date Rape" Drug
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Ltneidower kindly posted an AP story:

>Healthy subjects reportedly
>used in hallucinogen tests
>BOSTON (AP) -- Researchers
>trying to find ways to treat
>schizophrenia gave more than 100
>healthy people a powerful
>hallucinogen without fully informing
>them that the drug could potentially
>produce psychotic episodes, The
>Boston Globe reported Thursday.
>The studies involved the drug
>ketamine, also known as "Special K" and considered a
>"date-rape" drug because of the stupor-like condition it can cause.

I think it's hilarious the way various substances at various times become
associated with "date rape".

>The Globe said the studies, which began in 1994, involved both
>mentally ill and healthy people, and participants often were not
>told they were being given ketamine specifically
>to induce conditions similar to schizophrenia.
>Ketamine is available by prescription only, and is approved by the
>Food and Drug Administration

Wrong. It is only LICENSED by FDA (i.e., there's and approved New Drug
Application in effect for it). No drugs are approved by FDA, although they
do certify food colors.

>Disclosure is important because there is the possibility of
>"hooking someone" on the drug, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at
>the University of Pennsylvania.

Meaning, I suppose, that if people aren't told what the substance is,
there's no way they can become hooked on it. Of course.

Robert

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Study Ethics Questioned (A different Associated Press version)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 19:45:17 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Drug Study Ethics Questioned
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Paul Wolf (paulwolf@icdc.com)
and General Pulaski
Pubdate: 31 Dec 1998
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1998 Associated Press.

DRUG STUDY ETHICS QUESTIONED

BOSTON (AP) -- Medical ethicists are raising objections to a study in which
100 healthy volunteers were given a powerful hallucinogen in an effort by
scientists to better understand mental illness.

In studies conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health, Yale
University and several other places, test subjects took small doses of
ketamine, also known as ``Special K'' or the ``date rape drug.''

Scientists conducting the study said volunteers were carefully screened for
mental illness and signed consent forms that warned of side effects such as
hallucinations and mood changes.

But some critics said the risks of the drug are not fully known and
questioned the ethics of inducing psychotic behavior in healthy people.

``The idea of inducing psychosis, in psychology or psychiatry, is the worst
thing that can happen,'' Carl Tishler, an adjunct professor at Ohio State
University, said Thursday. ``If you are a cardiologist do you induce a
heart attack in someone to see what its like to you can study it?''

Ketamine is a trendy new designer drug used mainly by young people who pay
$20 to $40 per dose. Nationwide, the drug has been connected to at least
one death of a teen-ager who mixed it with heroin; numerous sexual
assaults; and thefts from veterinarians' offices and hospitals.

Often used as a prescription surgical anesthetic for people and animals,
the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug can cause mild
hallucinations, confusion and fear with regular use. Severe hallucinations
are possible with large doses.

The Boston Globe reported Thursday that healthy subjects run the risk of
flashbacks months after using ketamine.

``If this is what they do to normal (people), God help us with the
cognitively impaired,'' Adil Shamoo, a University of Maryland bioethicist,
told the newspaper.

But scientists say ketamine can help unlock the mysteries of mental
illness, especially schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, by giving
researchers insight into the nature of hallucinations and mood disorders.

The experiments began in the early 1990s and ended more than a year ago.
They were designed to provoke symptoms of schizophrenia in healthy people
during a one-time exposure, said Dr. Trey Sunderland, chairman of NIMH's
review board.

He said the volunteers were screened for mental illness, drug use and
medical problems before being injected with approximately one-twentieth of
an average surgical dose. Some subjects were paid between $30 and $40, he
said.

Sunderland said that there is no documentation that ketamine has ever
caused flashbacks in surgical patients and that no NIMH volunteers have
complained of side effects from the study.

But Tishler said the NIMH project had serious ethical shortcomings and more
research into ketamine's long-term effects is needed. ``They're saying that
this is a safe thing, when maybe it's not,'' he said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Studies Are Questioned (The original Boston Globe version)

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 23:50:31 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Drug Studies Are Questioned
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake
Pubdate: Thu, 31 Dec 1998
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Contact: letters@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
Page: A01 - Front Page
Author: Dolores Kong, Globe Staff

DRUG STUDIES ARE QUESTIONED

Psychiatric researchers over the past several years have given about 100
healthy individuals across the nation a powerful hallucinogen, known to
drug abusers as ''Special K,'' to study psychosis, often without fully
disclosing the nature of the drug or the experiments.

The studies using ketamine have involved both mentally ill and healthy
subjects, placing them both at potential risk of psychotic episodes,
according to documents reviewed by the Globe.

Using ketamine on healthy volunteers especially troubles some medical
ethicists, because there is no possibility that healthy people as a class
will achieve any benefit to offset the risk of harm. The mentally ill, at
least in theory, would be aided by any knowledge gained about the biology
of psychosis.

Most of the ketamine experiments have been conducted at the National
Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., or at NIMH-funded facilities
such as the medical schools of Yale and New York University.

A Globe review of their research and some of the consent forms that
participants are asked to sign indicates that subjects are often not being
told that the drug is being given to specifically induce symptoms such as
hallucinations or memory loss, or that it is abused as a psychedelic drug.

On the streets and on drug-subculture Internet sites, ketamine is known for
being able to create near-death experiences, feelings of floating, and
other hallucinations. It has recently been used as a date-rape drug and at
all-night parties known as ''raves,'' prompting several states to make
illegal possession a felony.

Some critics see these experiments as an echo of 1950s and 1960s research
in which psychiatrists gave people LSD without fully informing them of the
risk.

''It's just like shades of LSD research as far as I'm concerned,'' said
Carl Tishler, an Ohio State University psychologist who has written on the
ethics of ketamine experiments.

LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, was made illegal across the nation in
the 1960s.

Ketamine is primarily used as an animal tranquilizer, particularly for cats
and nonhuman primates. It had once been commonly used as a human
anesthetic, until its hallucinogenic properties were discovered. Ketamine,
also known on the streets as ''KitKat'' or, simply, ''K,'' is a chemical
cousin of PCP, or ''angel dust.''

In a series on psychiatric research last month, the Globe documented the
harm done by the use of ketamine and other ''challenge'' agents to induce
psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia, as well as from other
research approaches. An additional review has revealed studies involving
ketamine in more than 100 healthy people since 1994 - and the growing
illicit use of the drug. Such studies do not appear to have been done in
Massachusetts, although a bill has been filed by a private citizen to
strengthen research protections here.

''If this is what they are doing to normal [people], God help us with the
cognitively impaired,'' said Adil Shamoo, a University of Maryland
bioethicist and editor of the journal Accountability in Research.

As a result of the Globe's review, Shamoo said the New York-based advocacy
group he co-founded with Vera Hassner Sharav, Citizens for Responsible Care
in Psychiatry and Research, will expand its call for a moratorium on
challenge studies, to include those involving healthy people.

Among some of the results of ketamine in healthy subjects reported in the
literature: Feelings of floating and of having a transistor radio implanted
in the ear; acute psychotic states; ''psychedelic effects''; ''tearfulness,
a sad mood''; and feelings of ''life and death at the same time.''

While the possibility of experiencing long-term harm from a drug-induced
psychosis is less likely among healthy people, there is still the risk that
some normal subjects will have flashbacks months afterward, even if they
apparently have no history of substance abuse or mental illness that would
make them vulnerable, according to the Globe's review of LSD and ketamine
research, and ethicists familiar with the research.

There is also a possibility that healthy subjects would refuse to disclose
elements of their medical history to researchers for fear it would mean
they would be unable to participate. (Some of the ketamine studies paid
$100 per subject.)

''That is something to worry about,'' said Jonathan Moreno, director of the
University of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics and a specialist on
the history of LSD research.

A top NIMH official and a Yale psychiatrist who has conducted some of the
studies said they do not believe that ketamine's illict use needs to be
spelled out in informed consent forms, since the drug is still approved by
the Food and Drug Administration as an anesthetic. Above all, the careful
use of ketamine in research may help yield answers for some of the most
devastating mental illnesses, they say.

''This is a medicine which is given under close scrutiny for a short-term
basis. There is no repeat long-term exposure,'' said Dr. Trey Sunderland,
chairman of NIMH's institutional review board, which has approved ketamine
studies involving both healthy subjects and those with schizophrenia. As a
result, ketamine's street use is ''not an issue in these studies'' and not
brought up with subjects.

''I don't think there's a direct comparison between the ketamine research
and the LSD research,'' Sunderland said, since ketamine is FDA-approved and
shorter acting. In addition, ''I know of no such long-term effects with
this kind of study,'' like flashbacks, although he said it is not a matter
of routine for researchers to check up with subjects months later.

Dr. John H. Krystal, a Yale professor of psychiatry who has conducted
studies in both healthy people and people with mental illness, said that
his group began using ketamine ''based on a reading of the old PCP
literature. There might be symptoms or cognitive deficits or emotional
problems associated with schizophrenia that might be modeled by ketamine.''

''The hope ... is that we might gain new insights into treatment of these
symptoms,'' Krystal said. Ketamine is thought to provide a better model of
schizophrenia than LSD or other psychostimulants, because it appears to
induce both hallucinations and bizarre thoughts, or so-called positive
symptoms, as well as the social withdrawal and other negative symptoms of
the disease.

Krystal said he is certain that during his early studies, first published
in 1994, subjects were not told of ketamine's use as a street drug, but he
did not have available the most recent consent forms to verify what
subjects are now told.

However, he said, ''People who participate are made aware that it has
effects on mood that may make some people want to use it.''

But James Childress, a member of the National Bioethics Advisory
Commission, which is calling for special research protections for the
mentally ill, said the illicit use of ketamine is ''exactly the sort of
thing that should be disclosed'' to study participants.

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said such
disclosure is particularly important because ''There's always the danger of
hooking someone, getting someone down a road they don't even want to travel.''

One legislator in Florida, a state that has considered making possession of
ketamine a felony, agreed.

''If government is going to do studies on people, I think they need to tell
people what they're ingesting. It seems government should have learned that
lesson a long time ago,'' said Florida state Representative Tracy Stafford,
a Democrat who has filed a bill to make ketamine a controlled substance.

Some ethicists who reviewed an NIMH consent form obtained by the Globe said
they were most worried about its failure to fully explain the effects of
ketamine.

''If in fact the purpose of the NIMH study was to produce a psychotic
state, or if they knew it would produce a psychotic state, then they should
tell their subjects that,'' said Leonard Glantz, a medical ethicist and
professor of health law at Boston University School of Public Health.
''It's not a side effect or a hazard. It's a desired outcome.''

NIMH's Sunderland defended the form. ''It does mention you might get an
altered mood, hallucinations... The main side effects of the medication are
listed in black and white.''

But he acknowledged that challenge studies are under ''intense review'' at
NIMH and elsewhere, because of the questions that have been raised.

In February, an advisory council to NIMH is set to take up challenge
studies. NIMH director Steven Hyman has publicly stated that the research
community has ''to get its house in order'' to fend off restrictive
regulation and legislation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Report: Drug Tested Without Disclosure (The UPI version)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 20:34:21 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Report: Drug Tested Without Disclosure
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 31 Dec 1998
Source: United Press International
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Copyright: 1998 United Press International

REPORT: DRUG TESTED WITHOUT DISCLOSURE

BOSTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) - A review of research by the National Institute of
Mental Health in Maryland reported in The Boston Globe says about 100
healthy people across the country were given a powerful hallucinogen
without being told the drug can induce memory loss and is used as a
psychedelic and date-rape drug.

The Globe reports ethicists are questioning the use of ketamine, also known
as ``Special K,'' on humans without full disclosure.

The Globe says the studies using ketamine have involved both mentally ill
and healthy subjects, placing both at potential risk of psychotic episodes.

Ethicists said they are particularly troubled because there is no possible
benefit to healthy people that would offset the risk.

Ketamine, which is primarily used as an animal tranquilizer, has also been
used recently as a date-rape drug and at parties known as ``raves.''

Dr. Trey Sunderland, chairman of NIMH's institutional review board, said
the medicine was given under close scrutiny for a short-term basis.
Sunderland said there is ``no repeat long-term exposure,'' and consequently
ketamine's street use is ``not an issue in these studies'' and was not
brought up with subjects.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

War On Drugs, War On Women (The Winter 1998 issue of On The Issues magazine
examines several ways in which the war on some drug users has been
particularly harmful to women. Since 1986, the number of women in prison
has increased by 400 percent For black women the increase is 800 percent.
In the drug war, women's concerns have historically been ignored, dismissed,
or exploited. Women often incur long sentences because they refuse, or are
unable, to give prosecutors evidence about their husband's or boyfriend's
crimes and connections. Indeed, a 1997 review of over 60,000 federal drug
cases by the Minneapolis Star Tribune showed that men were more likely to
sell out their women to get a shorter sentence than vice versa. The average
first-time, non-violent drug-sales offender sentenced in the federal system
receives a 10 year jail term, more than twice as long as sentences given the
average rapist, and just 18 percent shorter than the typical manslaughter
sentence.)

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 22:45:39 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: War On Drugs, War On Women
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: tom@november.org http://www.november.org/
Source: On The Issues Magazine
Copyright: 1998 On The Issues
Pubdate: Winter 1998 issue
Contact: ontheissues@compuserve.com
Fax: 718-349-9458
Mail: 29-28 41st Avenue, 12th Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101-3303
Website: http://www.igc.org/onissues/
Author: Maia Szalavitz
Note: Maia Szalavitz has written for The New York Times, New York magazine
and the Washington Post and recently served as series researcher for Bill
Moyers On Addiction: Close to Home, a five-part PBS series.

WAR ON DRUGS, WAR ON WOMEN

Since 1986 The Number Of Women In Prison Has Increased 400%. For Black
Women The Rise Is 800%. Here Are Their Stories.

When President Clinton announced this year that he would spend $1 billion
on anti-drug advertising, not everyone saw it as occasion for celebration.
Buoyed by the President's earlier promises that he would shift spending
from its long-standing emphasis on enforcement and interdiction to
prevention and treatment, experts in the field of addiction had expected
something better. Though there are several proven techniques for preventing
substance-abuse problems, ad campaigns are not among them. "I had hoped
that President Clinton would have put more money into treatment and
research on the causes of addiction," says one expert in the field, Joseph
Volpicelli, M.D., a senior scientist at the Treatment Research Center at
the University of Pennsylvania.

The President's failure to make any significant change was disappointing,
but not surprising. Historically, the American response to drug problems
has been to ignore the facts and to support strategies that "send a
message" to voters rather than approaches that actually save lives. Nowhere
does this become more apparent than in the effect of the drug war on women.

Since 1972, when President Nixon named drugs "public enemy number one" and
declared all-out war, America has been fighting a losing battle. A survey
by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA),
a government mental-health agency in Rockville, Maryland finds that
although there was a drop in casual drug use of around 50% between its peak
in 1979 and its low point in the early 1990s, it is on the rise again,
while the number of addicts has remained at pretty much the same high level
throughout.

There are presently around 5 million Americans who have serious problems
with severe drugs. Approximately one third of them, according to SAMHSA,
are women. In the drug war, women's concerns have historically been
ignored, dismissed, or exploited. In the late 19th century, for example,
one of America's first "drug panics" occurred when cocaine and heroin (and
the opium from which heroin is derived), which were obtainable without a
prescription, found their way into numerous patent medicines. Women in
particular were seen as gullible victims of unscrupulous patent-medicine
salesmen. The fear that people would overdose on these so-called remedies
was a sensible reaction to the unregulated elixirs. Far less sensible-and
less tolerable to society was the conviction that mothers and wives were
being diverted from their responsibilities at home by their drug-induced
stupors. Indeed, it was "opium inebriety" among women that lead to the push
for the labeling of drugs and passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in
1906. "Female addicts are [seen as] doubly deviant," explains Sheigla
Murphy, Ph.D., director of the Center for Substance Abuse Studies at the
Institute for Scientific Analysis, a California think-tank. "A drunk man is
one thing, but a drunken woman is [considered] disgusting." Murphy
theorizes that the traditional expectation that a woman will take care of
her husband and children and make the care of others her priority is upset
by a woman doing something as selfish as using a substance for her own
pleasure. "It really rocks the boat," she says, adding that this is one
reason why our response to addicted women tends to be even more punitive
than our admittedly harsh treatment of male addicts.

The complete outlawing of cocaine and heroin wasn't accomplished on the
basis of ethical concerns alone, however. Racism was called into play early
on. Popular literature of the time shows that racist propaganda, which
played on white men's insecurities about their own power, flourished at the
end of the 19th century. Among other things, the notion that using cocaine
would heighten the desire of black men to rape white women was widely
proclaimed. The same was held to be true with regard to the use of opium by
Chinese men. Fears of "hopped up Negroes" and "opium smoking Chinamen"
fueled anti-drug sentiment, especially in the South and West. Despite the
fact that, at the time, the majority of addicts were actually those white
housewives hooked on patent medicines, the alleged threat to "our women,"
viewed as poor innocents, was used to heighten moral outrage over
intoxication. As a consequence, several states moved to ban the substances.

The federal government, further motivated by the understanding that a ban
on opium smoking would improve U.S. relations with China, where opium was a
symbol of unwanted foreign influence, followed the states lead and
criminalized recreational drug use in 1914. Making medical use the only
legitimate use of opiates and cocaine also settled a long-running turf war
between doctors and pharmacists over who should control the lucrative drug
business.

STAND BY YOUR MAN

Profitable as the drug trade may be to some, women are rarely among the
beneficiaries. Serena Nunn, 28, is serving 14 years for her involvement in
her boyfriend's multimillion-dollar cocaine business. Serena's role was
little more than secretarial: She drove her boyfriend to the sites of drug
deals and confirmed details on the phone. The government has tapes of her
threatening a witness, but there is no evidence that she engaged in violence.

A senior partner in the same business, however, a man who made millions
from the operation and had been previously convicted of manslaughter and
rape, received a sentence only half as long as Serena's - just seven years.
His sentence was reduced because he helped convict his own partner,
Serena's boyfriend. Serena's refusal to testify against her boyfriend, even
when his family suggested that she do so to help herself, cost her dearly.
And her case is typical.

Women often incur long sentences precisely because they refuse, or are
unable, to give prosecutors evidence about their husband's or boyfriend's
crimes and connections. Indeed, a 1997 review of over 60,000 federal drug
cases by the Minneapolis Star Tribune shows that men are more likely to
sell out their women to get a shorter sentence than vice versa.

Two-thirds of the $15 billion a year the federal government spends on the
drug war is devoted to such "supply-reduction" efforts as policing and
imprisonment. States devote another $15 billion to drug law enforcement and
incarceration. The people, mostly men, who sell drugs in quantity and
direct smuggling operations, are usually well-informed about the penalties
they face, and are quick to implicate others in order to reduce their own
sentences. They also tend to have information to trade. Those who aren't
heavily involved are either unwilling to be disloyal, or, as minor
characters in the business, they lack information useful to prosecutors.
Plea bargains go to the big players, who "have something to trade"; the
little fish, with nothing to put on the table, get the tough sentences.
Such tactics have the effect of switching sentencing judgments from the
judge to the prosecutor. They also enable hardened criminals to be back on
the streets and dealing again much more quickly.

The average first-time, non-violent drug-sales offender (such as Serena)
sentenced in the federal system receives a 10 year jail term, more than
twice as long as sentences given the average rapist, and just 18% shorter
than the typical manslaughter sentence. The U. S. Sentencing Commission
reported to Congress that more than half of all incarcerated federal drug
offenders were either street-level salespeople or "mules" (people hired to
smuggle drugs); only 11% could be considered to be "kingpins."

Suzan Penkwitz, the San Diego mother of a two-year-old son, had never even
seen heroin until she was arrested when returning to the U.S. from Mexico.
Her friend Jenny had asked her to go along on a drive south of the border
avowedly to help Jenny get her mind off a recent break-up with her
boyfriend. Suzan did what she thought a good friend should do. She had no
idea that Jenny was really going to Mexico to pick up 43 pounds of heroin.
"I never imagined myself going to prison. Never ever!" says Suzan, who is
serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp for women
in Dublin, California. Because of the way the system works, Jenny, who
admitted her involvement and agreed to testify against Suzan, got out after
serving only six months.

"Out of the 300 women here, I'd say 80 percent have stories similar to
mine." Suzan says. "First-time, non-violent, low-level drug offenders. I've
met women who got five years for what the Feds call 'improper use of the
telephone': answering the phone for what later turned out to be a drug
sale. Not being involved, mind you, but just answering [their own] phone.
And of course, the snitches that helped put them here all get off with
little or no time. I don't think I've met any high-level drug dealers here.
All these women had boyfriends, or husbands, or acquaintances who used them
and then let them hang. It's amazing. My roommates are 48, 50, and 58 years
old. Sweet, talented ladies. Grandmas, doing 14 years for `drug
conspiracy.' It all seems so pointless and tragic."

THE MANDATORY SENTENCE

Suzan, who didn't have anyone to testify against because she was unaware of
the plot, was seen as 'uncooperative' and therefore subject to harsh
federal sentencing guidelines. The severe penalties for possession or sale
of large quantities of drugs, which are mandatory for those without the
ability to plea bargain, are the main reason American prisons are full
beyond capacity, according to Justice Department statistics. They account
for why we imprison a much larger percent of our population than do other
Western democracies.

As a result of the introduction of mandatory sentencing to the federal drug
laws in the mid 1980s, and its adoption by many states at about the same
time, the number of women in prison has risen 400% since 1986, according to
a recent Department of Justice report, "Survey of State Prison Inmates";
for black women, the figure is 800%. Other statistics from that survey tend
to support Suzan's contention: More than two thirds of women are in prison
for committing non-violent crimes. Justice Department figures further show
that a similar percentage have young children, only one quarter of whom are
in the custody of their fathers. The rest are with various extended-family
members or friends, or in foster care.

What's even more distressing is that long before these draconian sentences
were introduced, there was good evidence that they would not cut
drug-related crime or drug use. New York State was among the first to try
mandatory sentencing for drug offenders, instituting the notorious
"Rockefeller drug laws" in 1973. Under these laws, anyone possessing over
four ounces of cocaine or heroin-even a first time offender-is subject to a
mandatory 15-years-to-life sentence.

Still on the books, the Rockefeller laws were in place even as New York
became the epicenter for the crack cocaine epidemic. Crack cannot be
manufactured without cocaine-so it wasn't that the penalties didn't apply
to the new drug. Had those laws been effective deterrents, one would have
expected the crack plague to have been less intense in New York State than
in states that had less severe punishments for drug crimes. In fact, the
opposite was true.

According to the Bureau of Justice, crack spurred a rise in violent crime
in the mid-to-late 198Os to rates that have not been seen before or since.
While crack isn't especially criminogenic - alcohol, in fact, is more
closely associated with violent behavior - a confluence of factors such as
recession, high unemployment in the inner city, and the introduction of a
new product by multiple, independent, gun-carrying crime groups caused the
spike in the crime rate. And none of this was stopped by the Rockefeller laws.

WHEN THE TREATMENT IS THE CRIME

A recent study by the Drug Policy Research Center of the California-based
RAND Corporation found that every $1 million spent on imposing lengthy,
mandatory sentences on drug dealers would prevent consumption of just 12
kilos of cocaine. Using shorter, traditional sentences and locking up a
greater number of dealers for shorter periods would reduce consumption by
over twice as much. And using the same amount of money to treat drug
addicts would cut use by over 100 kilos. Yet, despite these findings,
spending is continually increased for prison, and reduced for treatment.

The insanity of our spending priorities has devastating effects on women.
Gloria St. James, for example, was heavily involved in drugs and crime in
her South Bronx neighborhood from the age of 16. Fifteen years later, by
the time she recovered from heroin and cocaine addiction, she'd been
arrested 66 times and had served numerous short sentences for petty theft,
syringe possession, and embezzlement. Though it was clear that her crimes
were related to her drug use, she was never once offered drug treatment;
instead, prison constantly introduced her to new ways of using drugs and
committing crimes. "When I went to jail, I learned how to pick pockets,"
she says. "Then... I learned how to forge checks." Like Gloria, more than
80% of inmates never get drug treatment while incarcerated, according to a
recent report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, a
research center at Columbia University in New York. Not until after her
66th arrest, when a Christian outreach group visited the prison, did Gloria
see there might be a way for her to break free of her addiction. "There was
a woman [from the outreach group] who said that she had had a life like
mine," Gloria explains. "I couldn't believe it because she looked so good.
What she said Jesus did for her, that's what I held onto." The program was
neither paid for nor run by the prison.

What's more, when women are able to seek help for drug problems, they
rarely get what they need. "At a structural level, most existing drug
treatment centers are abusive to women. They are not set up to deal with
women's experiences," says Sheigla Murphy, who has studied the issue for
decades. Many centers, particularly the long-term residential programs
called "therapeutic communities," were developed to break down the tough
street identity of male addicts. The treatment techniques in these
facilities tend to replicate the abuse which often traumatized young girls
(and many boys) into becoming addicts in the first place. (According to
NIDA, more than half the women in treatment centers have been abused before
they get to the center.)

Before its "methods" were exposed, one such center was praised by Nancy
Reagan and George Bush, and described by a former head of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse as "one of the best programs of its kind in the
country." Moll (not her real name), who grew up in an upper middle-class
home, recounts her experience at the facility, which is still in operation:
"As soon as you woke up, you were immediately confronted with your past.
"What are you lying about today?" they would ask. If you talked back or
didn't do what they said, they would respond with what they called
`restraint.' They would throw you to the floor; someone would be holding
your arms and legs." At the same time, Moll says, someone else would cover
her mouth and nostrils so she couldn't breathe.

While boys were subject to the same rough treatment, there was special
sexual humiliation reserved for the girls. Julia (not her real name),
another patient in "treatment" with Moll, says, "Guys didn't have to talk
about losing their virginity in front of the whole group, but girls did. I
had to relive that incident in front of 150 people. And the guys said, `You
know how I used to feel about girls like you - you were sick and disgusting
sluts.'

"You couldn't talk to anyone other than your counselor," Moll explains.
"[Doing] that was `breaking chain of command,' and you could be punished
with restraint. There was no ombudsman or patient complaint procedure-hell
no. No one's required to take your side."

Because the parents of such young people don't know much about treatment,
and sources of information confict, they are easy prey. Tell parents that
their child will die if they don't get him or her into a treatment center,
and show them a positive profile of your facility written up in a leading
newspaper-how are they to know what to think? The rhetoric of the drug war
is "by any means necessary," and it sets up parents and kids to be
victimized by greedy providers who tell them, as Moll said her parents were
told, that "any drug use is abnormal and requires hospitalization." Moll
claims that her entire drug use consisted of smoking marijuana "maybe 20
times"- a "drug problem" that in fact does not meet the standards for
in-patient treatment, as defined by the American Society of Addiction
Medicine (ASAM), a specialty group affiliated with the American Medical
Association. If she had been evaluated by a reputable treatment provider,
she would have been given out-patient counseling, according to ASAM.
Instead, she spent three years in a center where she was subjected to 18
hours a day of confrontational "therapy."

Another way in which treatment centers fail women is that most of them have
no provision for dealing with the children of their patients. Says Sheigla
Murphy: "My opinion is that all of today's treatment is predicated on male
ways of viewing the world. For one, without facilities for children, you
are effectively excluding women with young children. Also, those who have
lost their children need to be helped to prepare for when they will get
them back. And most treatment doesn't deal with post-traumatic stress
disorder or with the long-term mental health care needs of addicted women,
who've commonly experienced molestation, rape, and other violent traumas."
In a recent study, Murphy found that 75% of women who used drugs while
pregnant, for example, had long histories of significant victimization.
Murphy adds: "If you put women in a confrontational situation in a mixed
gender group, as is done often, they will drop out or they will get even
further damaged by the experience. We wrote about this in the seventies,
yet with some notable exceptions, [the situation is] still the same."

WOMEN AS VESSELS

One of the newcomers to the war against drugs is the anti-abortion
movement, which has found in drug-using women a target for its campaign to
end choice. Pictures of tiny, sickly "crack babies" provide powerful visual
support for anti-woman oratory; the defenders of mothers whose drug use
endangers their babies are few and far between. Laws recently passed in
some states that criminalize the use of drugs by pregnant women reflect
this attitude. Such legislation may open the door to broader definitions of
fetuses as legal "persons."

It is apparent that measures enacted to "crack down" on women who use drugs
while pregnant often serve racist and sexist agendas; they are also
counter-productive. A recent study funded by The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, which finances research on health
policy, found that laws that seek to punish the mothers of babies who test
positive for drugs tend to keep many from getting help with their
addiction. "They drive women underground and they avoid prenatal care,"
said one of the study's authors, Lawrence Nelson, a bioethicist and
lecturer in philosophy at Santa Clara University. But prenatal care is the
one thing known to reduce harm to these babies. "There are already
penalties for drug use and these women have ignored them," Nelson says.
"Why is adding one more going to make a difference?" "Drug mother" laws
reinforce racist stereotypes. In Wisconsin, for example, what legislators
dubbed the "crack mother" law was passed after an unidentified black woman
called "Angela" tested positive for cocaine use during two separate
pregnancies. According to the Congressional Black Caucus, by using the term
"crack mother law" legislators evoke images of poor, typically black,
welfare queens having dozens of illegitimate children even though the law
also covers alcohol, powder cocaine, and other drugs more often used by
whites.

People think that such mothers "don't deserve to reproduce," says Lawrence
Nelson. His study found that in South Carolina, 40 out of 41 women arrested
on charges of delivering drugs to their fetuses were black, even though the
majority of pregnant drug users are white. Nationally, according to Nelson,
of the 240 women prosecuted in 35 states for these offenses, 70-80% were
minorities.

In South Dakota, a woman who is found to be using drugs or drinking heavily
during pregnancy can be held in a treatment center for her entire
pregnancy. A 1998 Wisconsin law allows women in the third trimester of
pregnancy to be confined until they give birth. Similar bills have been
introduced in 13 other states.

Nelson says that while anti-choice conservatives have tended to support
these laws, they may actually increase the incidence of abortion. "There
are anecdotal reports of women who have gotten abortions to avoid
prosecution for delivering drugs to the fetus," he says. During the debate
over Wisconsin's laws Francine Feinberg, director of a local drug treatment
center that is one of the relatively few devoted exclusively to the
treatment of women and their children, said that calls for help had already
dropped dramatically. "The primary reason pregnant women with alcohol and
drug problems do not seek prenatal care or treatment for their addiction is
fear of being turned in to the authorities and ultimately losing their
children." said Feinberg. "In terms of public health and better outcomes,
these laws don't get us anywhere," Nelson adds. "There is no evidence that
criminalization or any of these laws improve the lives of mothers or their
children."

TELL WOMEN THERE IS HOPE

"At least 80% of the women I see in recovery have experienced incest or
sexual abuse," says Ada "Cookie" Rodriguez. "I used to think I was unique."
Cookie, who now works as assistant director at Exponents, Inc., an
organization which helps addicts deal with HIV issues and trains them to
educate others, grew up in the Marcy Projects in the Bedford-Stuyvesant
section of Brooklyn, New York. She was raised in a single-parent home, with
three half-siblings. She describes the men her mother dated as "abusive,
alcoholics, dope fiends or all three." At five, Cookie was molested by an
uncle. She was also sexually abused by her grandfather - and when she told
her mother about it years later, her mother said, "He did that to me, too."
Cookie was initially outraged that her mother hadn't tried to protect her;
now she says, "Parents do the best they can with what they know, and that
gives me some solace." But she adds, "I'm still angry and resentful
sometimes."

In elementary school, Cookie was classified as gifted, but she dropped out
of junior high. She couldn't take the teasing other kids inflicted on her
for being fat. At age 11 or 12, she started smoking pot and at 13, she
remembers, she had "one of the best experiences I have ever had in my
life," after stealing LSD from the uncle who had molested her.

By 14, she was shooting cocaine and heroin; by 16, she was addicted. Her
relationships with men were violent and abusive. One man, whom she finally
fled with just the clothes on her back, "kicked my ass for breakfast, lunch
and dinner." She adds, "The sick thing is, I got my own apartment, but then
I went back. I used to tell myself `a little bit of love is better than no
love,' and after he beat me up, he would tell me how much he loved me and
how beautiful I was."

It took several hospitalizations-in one of which the crack she was smoking
crystallized in her lungs, causing cardiac arrest, but eventually Cookie
realized that drugs were killing rather than helping her. She joined
Narcotics Anonymous, and after three years clean in that self-help program,
she sought further care to deal with her abuse history. "I was having
flashbacks," she says, and describes how her boss asked her what was wrong
when she returned after a two-week vacation noticeably heavier. She'd been
trying to avoid her pain by eating.

Now 12 years clean and married for six years to a kind and caring man,
Cookie says, "I would tell women that there is hope. It's a cliche, but
there's life after drugs and there's life after abuse." Female addicts are
demonized by our drug laws-and drugs are blamed for their problems when in
fact, they are simply one way they've found to cope with often painful,
horrifying, heart-breaking lives. If we want to help women recover and
break the cycle of abuse, which is passed on from one generation to the
next, we need to stop punishing the victims and start looking at why so
many Americans want to blot out their lives so badly that they get addicted
to illicit drugs. Until we decide to treat those wounded in the battles
against illicit drugs with the same dignity and respect we reserve for
others who have been hurt and are desperate for relief, we will continue to
fight a losing war.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Marihuana Decriminalization Supported By NAC Grads
(A translation of an article in Le Monde, in France, says a group
of graduating students at the National Administration College -
which produces the country's ruling elite - reached the same conclusion,
that the laws governing cannabis use should be changed.)

Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 11:35:10 -0800
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)
Subject: Marihuana Decriminalization Supported By NAC Grads
Article in 'Le Monde' (France) 31/12/98.
Author: Jean-Yves Nau
Translator: Pat Dolan
Reply to: france@legalize.org

Decriminalization Supported By 'NAC' grads

Supporters of marihuana decriminalization have received an unexpected new
year gift, one which should give their cause a powerful boost.

In 'Le Monde'(France) 31/12/98, Jean-Yves Nau reports on conclusions
reached by some final year students of the National Administration College
which support a change in the law governing cannabis use.

The report can be summarized as follows.

Responding to one of the papers set as part of the 'Finals', some
graduating students reached the conclusion that the law regarding cannabis
should be changed. Possession of cannabis for personal use should be
decriminalized and made subject to a fine as is the case with minor traffic
violations.

For some of these future state prefects, councilors and highly placed
bureaucrats, marihuana is a perfect example of the "problems of integrating
the politics of public safety and public health".

All reached the same conclusion: the current law, dating from Dec. 31,
1970, under which marihuana consumption is treated as a felony punishable
by up to a one year gaol term, is no longer respected. When one considers
the number of regular consumers, estimated at one million, a strict
application of the law would require an 'unimaginable increase in the
number of law enforcement personnel'.

Of course, if health considerations are primary, account should be taken of
tobacco and alcohol. To be consistent, these should be banned also since
"their harmful effects are worse than those of cannabis."

The maintenance of the status quo in which repressive laws are practically
unenforceable leads to disrespect for the law.

If due consideration is to be given to the social acceptance of marihuana,
and to the lack of disturbance of the public order caused by consumers,
when compared with consumers of the hard drugs, including alcohol, a more
'proportional' penalty should be imposed.

The authors of this analysis also proposed an increase in and a
standardization of the taxes on all tobacco products. "To justify a sales
price which is less by one third in Corsica, on the basis of administrative
considerations, seems curious from the public health standpoint."

Jean-Yves Nau, Le Monde, 31/12/98.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 4, No. 44 (A summary
of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)

Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 14:43:27 +0100
To: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it
From: CORA Belgique (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
Subject: CORAFax #44 (EN)
Sender: owner-hemp@efn.org

ANTIPROHIBITIONIST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ....
Year 4 #44, December 31 1998

***

Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies
Edited by the CORA - Radical Antiprohibitionist Coordination, federated to
- TRP-Transnational Radical Party (NGO, consultive status, I)
- The Global Coalition for Alternatives to the Drug War

***

director: Vincenzo Donvito
All rights reserved

***

http://www.agora.stm.it/coranet
mailto:cora.news@agora.stm.it

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

***

000415 24/12/98
E.U.
ADDICTION
LE FIGARO

Neapolitan and Californian researchers disagree about the effects that
chocolate can have on the brain. The Californians say that it has effects
similar to those of cannabis, while the Neapolitans say that the anandamide
contained in chocolate reaches the brain in quantites too small to produce
any effect on the nervous system.

***

000422 29/12/98
E.U. / GERMANY
ADDICTION
FRANKFURTER

Christa Nickel, the new minister responsible for drug policies, says that
health is the main priority. She wants to extend her field of action to
alcohol, nicotine and pharmaceutical products. Regarding illegal drugs,
together with the usual repression, cure and prevention policies, she wants
to start a plan of contolled distribution of heroin for serious addiction
cases.

***

000418 29/12/98
E.U. / GB
CONSUMERS
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

The periodical review 'Narcomafie' says that a trend in drug use in
London's nightlife is to mix the usual substances with Viagra pills.

***

000421 28/12/98
E.U. / GB
HEALTH
CORRIERE DELLA SERA / THE TIMES

About a thousand patients have been accepted to take part in an experiment
on the therapeutic effects of marijuana under medical surveillance. A
laboratory seems to have permission to grow marijuana in a secret place.

***

000412 23/12/98
E.U. / SPAIN
INFORMATION
EL PAIS

Sociologist Antonio Escohotado has dedicated 30 years of his life,
including two of imprisonment, to writing his 'Historia General de las
Drogas', which is being published in its integral version.

***

000411 28/12/98
E.U. / GERMANY
JURISPRUDENCE
DER SPIEGEL

Each one of the 16 German Laenders punishes possession of drugs in a
different way. Nonetheless an interesting fact emerges: Bavaria has the
most severe sanctions, while Silesia has the most tolerant ones.

***

000419 29/12/98
E.U. / SPAIN
JURISPRUDENCE
EL PAIS

The Supreme Court has established that even a small dose of hashish for
personal use is punishable with a fine.

***

000420 28/12/98
ASIA
MARKET
NEUE ZUERCHER Z.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has become a freeway for
drug traffic from Afghanistan. Drug traffic is a serious problem for the
new republics of Kirgistan abd Tadschikistan.

***

000413 27/12/98
E.U. / ITALY
PREVENTION
CORRIERE DELLA SERA

The Minister of Interiors, while participating in a Christmas celebration
organized by a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, said that there is
the risk of a generalized drop in tension regarding the fight against drugs.

***

000414 28/12/98
E.U. / ITALY
PREVENTION
IL GIORNALE

The Region of Emilia Romagna has started a study to understand how the
building of new high-speed train lines could influence consumption of drugs
among young people living in those areas that will be crossed by the trains.

***

000416 24/12/98
E.U. / ITALY
TRAFFIC
IL GIORNALE

After the discovery of various trucks containing drugs, it is now sure that
the frontier near Trieste is one of the most important passage points for
illegal substances entering Italy.

***

000417 24/12/98
AMERICA / MEXICO
WAR ON DRUGS
HERALD TRIBUNE

After having already tried, often with many problems, the USA are launching
again a plan to help Mexico fight drug traffic.

***

CLIPPINGS

ITALY-PALERMO

Over three thousand people have participated in a demonstration organised
by the Citizen Anti Prohibitionist Co-ordination. The demonstration took
place around a joint five meters high.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

[End]